Yeah, my understanding was that they wanted much more information than is available through the Youtube API, presumably because the Youtube API was not designed to make a full Youtube client replacement, complete with the ability to "search for video categories, find favorites, see ratings, and so forth".
It's not clear to me why a phone vendor would be entitled to an API that provided that information, especially if theres a mobile web client available (that you don't get redirected from). I understand why a phone vendor would want it, but if Samsung started saying that their new Tizen deserved access to a more fully featured Youtube API, would they be getting any press?